Former Gov. Pete Wilson on Saturday urged his fellow Republicans not to make light of a recall drive against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

He told delegates at the California Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim that they should take the threat from the state prison guards union seriously, even if it isn’t likely to succeed.

“I hope that I don’t have to tell you what an ill-considered idea that is. We did it once; we did not do it lightly,” he said, referring to the 2003 recall of former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, an election that sent Schwarzenegger to Sacramento. “It is something that should not be taken lightly. It is an extreme measure.”

Wilson spoke hours before a conservative wing of the state GOP was scheduled to discuss whether to endorse the recall campaign.

The California Republican Assembly, which has often been at odds with Schwarzenegger, eventually decided to take a cautious approach to the recall, voting to investigate the union’s plans before making a decision.

Some members of the group’s board of directors wanted to sign on to the recall, saying the governor has never really represented Republican values.

In a keynote speech Saturday night, former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told delegates the U.S. must fix its ailing economy and boost its military prowess or risk losing its status as a superpower.

Romney recently bought real estate along the Southern California coast but has said he has no plans to run for office in California.

Earlier Saturday, Wilson avoided directly addressing the rift between the current governor, a political moderate, and others in his party. Schwarzenegger also avoided the topic during brief remarks to about 300 party members and supporters Friday night.

The governor’s unpopularity with the most conservative Republicans grew this summer after he proposed a temporary increase in the state’s sales tax to help close what was then a $15.2 billion deficit. Wilson was critical of the tax plan, as were Republicans in the state Legislature who successfully fought the effort.

“I think the governor has done everything possible to deserve a recall,” said Tom Hudson, the California Republican Assembly’s national committeeman. “He’s been as bad or worse than Davis.”

But the group’s vice president, Karen England, said the group needs to figure out how serious the union is about a campaign, how much money they have to fund a recall and who could run as a replacement candidate in such an election.

A spokeswoman for the governor, Julie Soderlund, said the governor doesn’t believe the conservative group will side with the union in the end.

“It’s the prison guard union trying to intimidate Gov. Schwarzenegger into the same sweetheart contract Gov. Davis gave them,” she said.

In another slap to the governor, the state party’s board of directors adopted a resolution praising Republicans in the state Legislature for “refusing to raise taxes and standing against the growth of government.”

Soderlund said the governor agrees a tax increase is the worst possible option.

Even if the group representing the party’s most conservative wing eventually supports the recall, it’s highly unlikely the state party would sign on to an effort seeking to toss a Republican governor out of office. Schwarzenegger will be termed out of office after 2010.

It now must decide whether to spend the estimated $2 million to $3 million needed to gather the voter signatures required to place the question on a special election ballot next year.

One of the motivations for the 2003 recall against Davis was his deal giving prison guards a 37 percent pay raise after he had accepted $2.6 million in campaign donations from the union.

Schwarzenegger has not taken money from the prison guards and has called its recall drive a political ploy designed to pressure him to give into the union’s demands during contract negotiations. The guards union has been without a contract for two years.

Wilson also urged Republicans to support Proposition 11, a Schwarzenegger-backed redistricting initiative on the November ballot to take authority for drawing state Assembly and Senate districts from the Legislature and give it to an independent commission.

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